12:30 pm
Jud remained in the car while Harry went to interrogate the butler of the Lucreski house, citing a need to rest his aching legs.As soon as she disappeared from sight, he pulled a small flask of whiskey out of the glove box, saying a quick prayer while downing a sip.The past week, hell the past hour, had given him enough stress to last out another five hundred years.And if he had to drink away the stress…
“It shouldn’t have taken you that long.”
The side door of the van opened and shut as the statement left his mouth, a very flustered Harry climbing inside of the vehicle.A spatter of blood across her cheek was simply a sign of the butler failing to communicate efficiently.Jud took a towel from the box, waiting for her face to be less of a crime scene before inquiring about the butler’s testimony.
“So, what did he have to say?”
Harry took the flask from his hand, bottling it back up, saying, “Don’t drink
while we’re on duty.”
“That’s what the butler said?That’s
surprising.”
The flask went back into the box with a sigh and Harry was wiping the rest of the blood off of her face.
“To be honest, it was a lot of crying.You would have thought they would hire a
stronger person to be the guard on a place like that.”
“Well he’s only a Marine from the governor’s army, I can see how he would be
such a gentle task.”
Jud ignored the laughter from the driver seat, slowly considering taking the flask back out of the glove box. This would be a moment that he wouldn't want accessible within his mind if the police happened to show up. Harry had a way of getting them into situations where the police caught on very quickly, giving the pigs more information than they needed. And then talking back out of it once investigators started asking too many questions, leaving Jud and everyone else to make up their own stories.
That was the one risk of working with Harry - police involvement.
"Oh stop your moping, old man. I am not that much trouble to work with."
"How would you know, Ehri? Have you ever actually gotten arrested from your actions or do you just throw some random cop under the bus?"
A familiar silence rose between them after Jud's accusation, leaving time to wonder what the next move should be. For a working environment that should be rather drama free, everything had a way of working itself in. As private detectives, the only drama they should see is back in a welcome room office explaining to some poor office worker that his husband is in fact cheating on him. Or having to break the facts of life to a young couple that their family pet is probably long gone. Or maybe still explaining to a few federal agents how the lead detectives' finger prints made their way onto a gun thrown into the harbor in connection to a long series of serial murders.
The usual business.
"Ehri, I'm sorry if-"
Harry swept her arm across his chest, pushing Jud down into the seat.
"What was that for?"
"Shut it, Jud. Do you really want to get spotted as we're about to break in?"
Jud slid down into the seat, peaking over the edge of the dashboard to see a neighborhood patrol car going through its loops. The rash of robberies in the neighborhood suddenly occurred to him, and how they might be implicated in the long-standing crimes. He began forming a story about how they were independently investigating those very crimes due to how the police department was slacking on progress.
"Are they gone, Ehri?"
"Yeah, it looks like they were just on a quick sweep. You can come back up from the floor now."
"I don't think I can but if you open the door, maybe I can just tumble out onto the ground."
The lock clicked on the passenger door, giving Jud only a single moment to find a grip inside the cabin. His uncomfortable position on the floor moved to being an uncomfortable position on the pavement with a sudden reminder of the years of damage to his legs. Gravel finding its way right into the scar that adorned the top of his thighs, dragging along as the old alien tried to force his back up.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Jud, you literally asked for it."
"That doesn't mean that I actually wanted you to do it you Tanis ass."
"Then stop being such a Bevar ass to me."
Jud smiled was ducking his head under the archway to the garden in the rear, following Harry (the natural commander) to a most certain doom. It had been his suggestion to break into the basement of the Lucreski house and they had already spent a few hours scouting the schedule. The Lucreskis were out of their house, their butler was incapacitated in some closet and the other staff members of the house were out.
It was the perfect time to strike but Jud still questioned if this was the right way to do it.
"Ehri, are you sure you want to break into the
basement?"
"You said it, Jud. It is the perfect time to strike."
Jud took one more glance at Harry before taking the bolt cutters out of his bag, preferring to get rid of locks the old-fashioned way. People could say all they liked for using lasers find a way in but a pair of cutters never accidentally shaved a half inch off of someone's hairline. At this point in his life, Jud couldn't afford to lose any more hair.
"Ehri, be truthful with me when I ask this. What
do you even think is down there?"
"Probably some cats, some stolen cargo, a few corpses in freezer units and
an unlicensed bounce system like the one we found in the jewelry store."
The last link on the seventh lock chain snapped and they slowly pulled the doors open, met with eyes glowing out of the darkness.
"Well, Ehri, you were right about the cats."
Points:
Time spent:
Canary word: Present
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Original Text:
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125,005 Literary Works • 672,798 Reviews
You already have two reviews and I'm lazy and have homework to do, so this will be brief. Mostly, I love seeing more of Jud and Harry's relationship here, just because they're such old friends and they BS each other so much, and it's always hilarious.
Yeah, Jud. You really should've known better.
I also really like getting his perspective, which I think works pretty well in this story, since we've gotten various characters' viewpoints already anyway.
I see you actually wrote the army of cats into your story like you threatened. I can't wait to see how this plays out.
Well, here we go again, so yay. I am so down for some Jud perspective (don't remember if you did this before, I don't think so? But if so/not, either way, I'm hoping there's more to come from him and from basically the whole cast cause they're all unique peeps.)
First off, for Jud to be this stressed out over accidentally getting Ria knocked up, it makes me wonder just how many of his past offspring had been intentional and were "happy" accidents themselves. This poor dude. I wouldn't recommend drinking on the job, but I think I can almost track the levels of anxiety and stress that have been plaguing Jud over the last couple of chapters. I feel sympathetic towards him, but I'm still very entertained by the image of a 500+ old being surrounded by this time's version of cleaning supplies and diapers, (of course those for the children not for the very old adults.)
It's interesting to see Harry from a different view, as of Jud not wanting to get inevitably caught or involved with the police (as demonstrated by past events) since of course she's conspicuous and gets everyone involved one way or another. The banter between them reads for sure as people who've probably known each other longer than one would want to know someone they work with/see all the time. Also, that was a perfect insertion of the seemingly beating up/torture scene of the butler, as besides the actual blood still on Harry, that wasn't like unnecessarily gruesome for readers, coming from a still-light tone.
Be aware, Jud, don't tempt Harry with anything, including getting pushed out of the car and hiding, because she will tell you to do that. Or make you do that. That was kind of amazing. I really do like jumping back into some of the investigative work, and learning about what a typical work time/plan/thing that Jud and Harry do as investigators is pretty fun. I'm kind of hoping that these cats are alive? But a part of me makes me wonder if they're going to end up dead from trying to get out stolen jewelry. Hm. I guess we'll have to see.
Until next time <33
OMG I loved it! Lol I loved the way you were able to engage me in the story and as an author we want to do that. I really enjoyed how you were able to show some humor that made me laugh and as authors we want to do that. We want to engage our readers and you did that. I really enjoyed it and I honestly think you should keep up the great work. Good job